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LP08 · 08-18-2002, 02:03 PM

Each byf42 I have owned had the s/n 2-digits on the reverse of the grips, same for byf41's. It is possible your grips are later replacements or were installed without s/n's. Lots of things are possible but from the appearance in the photo and practice in 1942, there is no evidence to suggest these are anything other than the factory original grips. If you wish to shoot this luger, you should substitute non-historic grips to protect these originals. The original grips are part of the factory original parts and, if damaged (easy to do if you shoot this), the gun's value will decline precipitously and be unrecoverable.

There does seem to be a lot of misinformation shared on the internet though most of it is well-intentioned. I encourage people who post information to state the support for their claims, cite reference publications, or offer appropriate cautions when making guesses. It is very confusing to new collectors to hear that grips are sn'd, not sn'd, black bakelite, wood, and whatever else. On Tuco's forum, recently, a new luger collector asked if his 1917 luger was original and valuable and was told it should have waffen stamps of the form "WaNxxx" and that it should not have gone through WW2 without getting nazi-stamped and that the military magazines should be marked "1" or "2". Each of those statements is incorrect but how can a new collector know this. It turns out the pistol was a police luger and DID have a correct "2" marked police magazine and, of course, was not marked with WW2-era waffen stamps. He had a nice original WW1 pistol that had gone on to WW2-era police use. If he paid attention to the internet comments, he might have thought he had some garage gunsmith pistol.

Help out the new people with good information.

08-18-2002, 02:03 PM	#19
LP08 User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Colorado Posts: 71 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Each byf42 I have owned had the s/n 2-digits on the reverse of the grips, same for byf41's. It is possible your grips are later replacements or were installed without s/n's. Lots of things are possible but from the appearance in the photo and practice in 1942, there is no evidence to suggest these are anything other than the factory original grips. If you wish to shoot this luger, you should substitute non-historic grips to protect these originals. The original grips are part of the factory original parts and, if damaged (easy to do if you shoot this), the gun's value will decline precipitously and be unrecoverable. There does seem to be a lot of misinformation shared on the internet though most of it is well-intentioned. I encourage people who post information to state the support for their claims, cite reference publications, or offer appropriate cautions when making guesses. It is very confusing to new collectors to hear that grips are sn'd, not sn'd, black bakelite, wood, and whatever else. On Tuco's forum, recently, a new luger collector asked if his 1917 luger was original and valuable and was told it should have waffen stamps of the form "WaNxxx" and that it should not have gone through WW2 without getting nazi-stamped and that the military magazines should be marked "1" or "2". Each of those statements is incorrect but how can a new collector know this. It turns out the pistol was a police luger and DID have a correct "2" marked police magazine and, of course, was not marked with WW2-era waffen stamps. He had a nice original WW1 pistol that had gone on to WW2-era police use. If he paid attention to the internet comments, he might have thought he had some garage gunsmith pistol. Help out the new people with good information.